Will you be selling WWJMD bracelets in the future?
Tony | Homepage | 08.08.06 - 11:35 am | #

Yo!
Baylen | Homepage | 08.08.06 - 12:00 pm | #

Setting aside personal freedom issues and the issue of whether the state should be paying for the healthcare for anybody (particularly those who volutarily indulge), the report they have produced (http://cspinet.org/booze/taxguide/ 040802BeerReport.pdf) looks like bullshit to me.

Check out the graph on page 13 comparing binge drinking to beer tax rates. Remember junior scientists, when your data is completely scattered, add a best-fit line and the "conclusions" always become clearer. I'd love to see the R-squared on that data set.

Page 13 sums it up pretty nicely, per capita beer comsumption is 1.29 gallons in the 7 states with the highest beer tax rates, and soars to 1.31 gallons in the 7 states with the lowest beer tax rates. The differences in health care costs are similarly insignificant.

I'm pissed now and think I will start on my 1.31 gallons of beer for today.
Kevin S. | 08.08.06 - 12:29 pm | #

It's worth stating that Join Together, which you call a "neo-prohibitionist website" frequently provides the drug policy reform movement with very good coverage. Just becauce you don't like one article, don't dismiss the whole site. I'm sure you know better and actually like some of JT's coverage yourself. But don't dismiss it in the eyes of TTP readers who don't necessarily know better.
anonymous | Homepage | 08.08.06 - 12:52 pm | #

I think Join Together sucks. They're for big government and the nanny state. They may report on good stuff, but they suck. Sort of like the Washington Times.
Baylen | Homepage | 08.08.06 - 1:52 pm | #

I hate those "cost to society" and "cost in health care" figures as the data lack integrity. They count a dead boozer as a cost but in fact had said boozer abstained and lived another 30 years he would have cost society a heck of a lot more in terms of health care costs, social security, etc. If you are looking purely at the economics of life expectancy, the best scenario for "society" would be for us all to drop dead as soon as we retire. They ought to be encouraging us to drink, smoke, get sexually transmitted diseases and drive without seat belts.
Leonardo | Homepage | 08.08.06 - 6:24 pm | #

anonymous,

You make a good point. Join Together has provided good coverage of the drug reform movement. They're not crazy conservatives. But, they're public health fascists. I call them neo-prohibitionists because they don't want to ban alcohol and tobacco use per se, they just want to make it more difficult to engage in.

cicero
cicero | Homepage | 08.08.06 - 11:14 pm | #